HEARING IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 833 



prehend anything but quantity and direction where we perceive 

 light and tonality, form and perspective ? Is the luminous world 

 for them and for many other insects nothing else than a special 

 palpitation of disturbed space which they analyze, orienting them- 

 selves in it by the perception of the force and direction of the 

 direct or reflected disturbances ? Do the handsome colors of but- 

 terflies prove that they are sensitive to the colors of flowers ; and 

 can we make sight play a certain part in the curious mimetic 

 adaptations of different animals ? Selection may serve us better 

 than we should do ourselves without our aiding it ; and it is not 

 always by tactics that an animal escapes its enemies. 



Mimicry of form and color addresses itself to the sight of the 

 enemy, and there doubtless also exists a mimicry of odor. This, 

 however, only proves that the enemy hears and sees without there 

 being any calculation on the side of the interested animal. There 

 is nothing astonishing in the thought, for we frequently meet 

 persons to whom particular colors are unknown, and who have, 

 therefore, only an incomplete idea of light ; and if we look for 

 sensorial memory and aesthetics behind the senses, the divergencies 

 will be found still stronger. 



Hearing, according to an opinion that appears solidly estab- 

 lished on facts, is well developed in animals quite distant from us. 

 Instances in point are the spider of Gre'try and other spiders 

 which seemed to have real musical tastes ; eatable crustaceans, 

 which can not be fished for successfully except in the most rigor- 

 ous silence ; the crabs of Minasi, which stopped in the midst of 

 most lively frolics when a bell called them to order ; the prawns 

 of Hensen, which leaped when the slightest sound reached them ; 

 the shrimp, which exhibited in the hairs of their tails what were 

 taken to be organs of hearing. 



Dahl has ascertained similar facts concerning spiders. Ro- 

 manes remarks that these insects approach instruments having a 

 pleasant sound, and cites an observation of Reclain, who, during 

 a concert at Leipsic, saw a spider come down a chandelier while 

 a solo was performed on the violin, and go back very quickly as 

 soon as the orchestra set in. He, however, expresses doubts as to 

 the meaning of these facts ; and many authors, including Lub- 

 bock and Forel, have not been able to ascertain that insects hear. 



Hearing means perception of noises and sounds ; and it is this 

 perception that we refuse absolutely to every being deprived of a 

 sacculo-cochlear apparatus. If an animal hears because certain 

 hairs of its body are set into vibration by certain disturbances of 

 the air, then a barley beard, a piece of velvet, and a brush vibrat- 

 ing harmonically, hear likewise. If we should invest the most 

 hopelessly deaf man with a stiff-jointed armor, like the armor of 

 the men-at-arms of the middle ages, and should put his head into 



VOL. XXXIX. 61 



